Whether we’re trying to improve our physical activity, increase our fluid intake, or sleep better, there are apps we can download to our smart phones to help us live healthier lives. Here are five that we have found are particularly helpful:

Intermountain Health Hub

A user of Intermountain Healthcare’s Health Hub app can manage many of her health-related activities from prevention through recovery right from her phone. The GermWatch tool lets her see current sicknesses and associated symptoms that are highly active, how to prevent those sicknesses, and when to contact a doctor. If she is feeling under the weather, she can use the symptoms tool to get an idea of next steps. If she need to get into an InstaCare location, she can browse locations by wait times and then schedule their place in line with a location of their choice, helping her see a provider with less in-lobby wait time. The pharmacy tool allows a user to refill her prescriptions.

Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal

This app by MyFitnessPal helps users gain, maintain, or lose weight to get to a healthier weight for their body. After a user downloads the app, she is asked to enter basic height, weight, and age demographics. Her current weight and goal weight is paired up a suggested, calculated daily caloric intake goal is provided. She can track daily weight, water, food, and exercise to make sure they are meeting her goal for calorie consumption and burning. This app has visual indicators, tips, and tricks to guide users along their way to improved health and fitness.

In addition to this app, the Weight to Health Program at Logan Regional Hospital can be an effective method to become a healthier eater. It is taught by Registered Dieticians and can be a helpful step in learning more about healthy eating habits and improving one’s health.

My water

Water is a critical element of one’s health. This app helps users track water and beverage consumption throughout the course of the day. If a user gets behind on drinking enough water to stay hydrated, she is sent a push notification on her phone reminding her to get another drink.

Strava

Strava is a social media network for exercisers. Strava uses a phone’s GPS capabilities to track one’s cycling, running, or walking route. In addition to the route, users can see their average pace, distance, and elevation gain and elevation loss during the course of their exercises. Friends can follow each other and pass along encouragement for friends’ exercise goals. This app is very useful for those who would like to time spent exercising and distance traveled during exercise.